Publications

November 2011
Teaching Note

Comfort Class Transport: Does Customer Service Need an Overhaul? (Brief Case)

By: Michael J. Roberts and Paul E. Morrison

Teaching Note for Product #4377. View Details

Keywords: Capacity Utilization; Supply ＆ Demand; Operations Management; Customer Service; Management; Demand and Consumers; Operations; Customer Focus and Relationships; Supply and Industry; Capital

April 2008
Case

Four Products: Predicting Diffusion (2008)

By: John T. Gourville

An updated "Four Products" case. This 2008 version includes: sliced peanut butter, foldable bicycle tires, high-end wooden puzzles, and artificial dirt for thoroughbred race tracks. These four products form the basis to assess the drivers of new product adoption. In... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Innovation and Invention; Product Marketing; Demand and Consumers; Adoption

June 2003
Case

Rise and Fall (?) of Palm Computing in Handheld Operating Systems,The

Describes the evolution of the handheld operating system market. Describes the rise to dominance of Palm's operating system and the significant challenge to that dominance posed by Microsoft's Windows CE. View Details

Keywords: Competition; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Network Effects; Information Technology Industry; Computer Industry

02 Jun 2014
News

What's Holding Uber Back

Keywords: disruptive innovation; strategy; Transportation

08 Mar 2012
Research & Ideas

Unplugged: What Happened to the Smart Grid?

efficient storage would get us a long way forward." Another potential plus: Consumers would have more control over their energy usage. Homeowners would be given in-home meters to monitor their energy use and even control how much... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Energy; Utilities

Jon Staff

Consumer brand building - Mission/vision/values development and adherence - Co-founder and early stage team building - DTC marketing - Go-to-market strategies - Hospitality startups - Real estate businesses - Investor management -... View Details

Keywords: Travel, Tourism, & Hospitality;#56;#Personal Health & Wellness;#16;#Consumer Products & Packaged Goods

25 Oct 2019
News

Jane Fraser Named President of Citigroup

Jane Fraser (MBA 1994) was named president of Citigroup this week, also taking on the role of CEO of Global Consumer Banking at the bank. The position, notes CNN, makes her second-in-command at the country’s third-largest bank, as well as... View Details

01 Oct 1997
News

Class of '97 Placement Statistics Similar for September and January Cohorts

& Media 4% Investment Management 4% Health Care 3% Consumer Products 3% Other Services 12% Other Manufacturing 3% Employment by Company Size (number of employees)** 10,001 22% * 883 students graduated in the Class of 1997, with 607 in the... View Details

25 Apr 2014
News

Strategists analyze market forces—great strategists also look beyond the market

government and interest groups that also seek market imperfections and try to fix them through legal or social means. "These non-market forces can affect the 'rules' of competition: think of Google's continued deliberations with US and EU competition and View Details

24 Apr 2014
News

Addressing roadblocks to innovation in health care

convenes health care management educators to develop and implement new curricula for health care management education. She also recommends policy changes, such as standards for health care IT and transparency to consumers on the price and... View Details

01 Sep 2003
News

In the Running?

consumer protection agency in the country,” he said. “If I look too far in the future, I’m going to miss the opportunity to do what needs to be done today and tomorrow.” View Details

Keywords: Executive, Legislative, and Other General Government Support; Government

Career Coach

Aaron Mitchell

Aaron (HBS '11) has spent his career building expertise in Human Capital Management for Consumer Packaged Goods and Financial Services firms in the United States and Asia. He is currently the Head of Talent for MassMutal, a Fortune 100... View Details

01 Sep 2012
News

On a Sound Track

business at the intersection of consumer electronics, media, and lifestyle branding. Skullcandy, which Andrus helped build with founder and former CEO Rick Alden, is expecting between $280 and $300 million in revenues this year. The... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg; audio accessories; Sporting Goods, Hobby, Musical Instrument, and Book Stores; Retail Trade

2020
Working Paper

Overcoming the Cold Start Problem of CRM Using a Probabilistic Machine Learning Approach

By: Eva Ascarza

The success of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) programs ultimately depends on the firm's ability to understand consumers' preferences and precisely capture how these preferences may differ across customers. Only by understanding customer heterogeneity, firms can... View Details

Keywords: Customer Management; Targeting; Deep Exponential Families; Probabilistic Machine Learning; Cold Start Problem; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Consumer Behavior; Analytics and Data Science; Mathematical Methods; Retail Industry

SSRN

2010
Other Unpublished Work

God, Government and Outsiders: The Influence of Religious Beliefs on Depositor Behavior in an Emerging Market.

By: Ayesha K. Khan and Tarun Khanna

This paper provides evidence that religious beliefs can have a significant impact on individual financial choices. Using proprietary panel data on the distribution of bank deposits across all commercial banks in Pakistan over a 33-month period, I find that Islamic... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Commercial Banking; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Consumer Behavior; Emerging Markets; Religion; Banking Industry; Pakistan

November 2000 (Revised May 2002)
Case

FleetBoston Financial: Online Banking

By: Frances X. Frei and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar

As the ninth largest bank holding company in the United States in 2000, FleetBoston Financial Corp. provided a myriad of financial services, including retail banking, loan origination, and brokerage accounts. This case explores how FleetBoston responded to the Internet... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Borrowing and Debt; Cost Management; Banks and Banking; Consumer Behavior; Service Operations; Competition; Online Technology; Banking Industry; United States